I opened my eyes as the truck slowed to a stop, its engine whining as it absorbed our momentum and then chugged along as it idled. We’d pulled up to a gate comprised of tall chain link fence topped with rusting coils of razor wire. Behind it sat a narrow metal shack with long windows running down both sides and a smaller window on the front, none of which contained glass, except for the left side, which on closer inspection turned out to be a sliding door. The dusty brown vamp that’d prevented me from being prematurely drained leapt out of the bed of the truck springing over the side and landing lightly on the pavement. A large gnat alighted on my nose, ugly and alien in my cross-eyed vision as its slender snout pumped my blood into its body. It itched and I rubbed at it with the cuffs binding my wrists trying to scrape the skin with the metal’s edge but without getting any satisfaction other than a momentary pause in the bug’s feast as it hovered around my head. The tan vamp shouted something to a deeply black vampire with exceedingly long fangs that stood out in the bright light streaming down from the search lights atop the corners of the fencing and along the roofs of the low grey buildings. Vamps with fangs that long were very old, probably dating back to the crazy times if not earlier. The black vamp had stepped back into his shack and the gate began pulling back with an electric whirring, tottering, and creaking as it rolled along its track. We drove up beside the shack and stopped at an identical gate along its backside enclosing the shack. Once the gate we’d passed through had completely closed the one in front of us opened and we passed through as soon as it had scarcely skirted our mirrors. We pulled into a large black paved parking lot filled with a hodgepodge of vehicles including every style of car and truck imaginable, several fire trucks and ambulances, a tank, and two rows of military jeeps parked neatly in the front of the parking lot, adjourning a gate in the fencing that led to a long narrow path between two concrete buildings.
The vamps all got out of the truck and stood at its tailgate as I carefully leapt out, throwing my bound hands up in front of my face to steady my landing. The driver was stretching and looking at me with interest. “Looks like any old human to me,” he said. “Only good for one thing.”
The dark-skinned vamp ignored him and said, “Good work. I’m sure the General will be very appreciative.” He passed each vamp two slips of paper with something printed on them in red, which they folded up and put into their pockets. Then they headed off together in a group lazily walking down one side of the fence. As they left me alone with my unusual benefactor I felt an alarming sensation of exposure crawling down the back of my neck, along my spine and then down my arms as the skin tautened into a continuous expanse of goose bumps and erect hairs. The parking lot was intensely lit by the spotlights that adorned the flat roofs of the long buildings that surrounded it and every reflective surface glaring and all of the light felt directed onto me, so that I didn’t even cast a shadow. I eyed the darkness under the automobiles, but my captor said, “Come with me,” in a stern voice and I followed him to the gate.
He pushed a small button at the side of the gate, and I heard a distant buzzer groan. A moment later three female vampires sauntered up the narrow passageway. Each one carried a black machine gun loosely in their small white hands. Each one wore loose camo pants tucked into tight tightly laced boots and close-fitting shirts that clung to their breasts. The first thing that I noticed was their weapons and I wondered where they had been found and if I could snatch one away from them and shoot my way out of the city, but then my attention drifted away from my fantasy and I found myself entranced by the women as if the tale that vampires had the power to hypnotize with their eyes was true. They walked forward in a tight V, their hips rolling gently from side to side in enticing arcs. The two flanking vampires had long dark hair that hung to their waists and shone under the searchlights, wide dark eyes, and high porcelain cheekbones. They smiled with a smoldering elegance that contrasted with their gear and surroundings, a smile that hid the sharp tips of their fangs, but still revealed their existence. But even their beautiful pale skin, small crisp noses and dark features faded in comparison to their leader. I forgot myself as I stared at her; I drifted out of my surroundings with each bounce of her golden hair. She must have been a pretty woman once, with short artfully tousled blonde hair, but as a vampire she was radiant. Her pale skin had faded to an almost translucent cream color with just a hint of pink tinting her cheeks and served to bring out her crystalline blue eyes like frozen jewels. I would have wagered that she hadn’t seen the sun since she’d been turned. Her breasts were small but had remained perky and were well suited to her tall lithe frame. Her eyes danced as she looked at me and her smile was devilish in
